that is to say, of Gothic workmanship, and only five
hundred years old, while the main body is an antique rotunda, that dates
more than twice as far back, or as remotely as the reign of Charlemagne
himself. There is a circular gallery in it, around which the thrones of
the Emperor and Electors were formerly placed, at the ceremonies of
coronations. Each of these thrones was flanked by small antique columns,
brought from Rome, but which during the reign of Napoleon, in the spirit
of monopoly and desecration[23] that marked the era, had been
transferred to Paris, where some of them are still seen standing in the
gallery of the Tuileries. A chair that was found in Charlemagne's tomb
stands in this gallery, and was long used as a throne for the Emperors.

[Footnote 23: Extract from the unpublished manuscript of these letters:
"You have lately been at Richmond Hill," said Mr. ----; "did you admire
the view, as much as is the fashion?" "To be frank with you, I did not.
The Park struck me as being an indifferent specimen of your parks; and
the view, though containing an exquisite bit in the fore-ground, I
think, as a whole, is both tame and confused." "You are not alone in
your opinion, though I think otherwise. Canova walked with me on the
terrace, without seeming to be conscious there was anything unusual to
be seen. He scarcely regarded the celebrated view a second time. Did you
know him?" "He was dead before I came to Europe." "Poor Canova!--I met
him in Paris, in 1815, in a ludicrous dilemma. It rained, and I was
crossing the Carrousel in a _fiacre_, when I saw Canova stealing along
near the walls, covered in a cloak, and apparently uncertain how to
proceed. _I drove_ near him, and offered him a seat. He was agitated,
and appeared like a man who had stolen goods about him. The amount of it
was, that they were distributing the pictures to their former owners,
and having an order to receive "la Madonna della Seggiola," he had laid
hands on the prize, and, in his eagerness to make sure of it, was
carrying it off, under his cloak. He was afraid of being discovered and
mobbed, and so I drove home with him to his hotel." I think Mr. ----
named this particular picture, though I have somewhere heard it was
never brought to Paris, having been sent to Sicily for security: it
might, therefore, have been another painting.]

The cathedral is said to be rich in relics, and, among other things, it
has some of the manna from the desert,